The so-called Dual EC. DRBG pseudorandom generator (PRG) operates in the following simplified manner in order to incrementally generate blocks of pseudorandom bits r1,r2 - The PRG is initiated by randomly selecting two (2-dim) points P,Q in a given elliptic curve over a given prime field size p, so that for any integer t the points Pt,Qt are well-defined. - Starting from an initial random seed s0 in order to generate the k-th pseudorandom block rk : - the PRG's internal secret state sk is updated to the x-coordinate of point Ppk1; and - the PRG's k-th output rk is the x-coordinate of point Qsk1, appropriately truncated to a smaller bit-string. Yet, if the points P,Q are known to be related in the form of Qe=P, or if the output truncation rate is more than 1/2, then this PRG is known to be insecure-that is, a brute-force type of attack is likely to reveal the PRG's internal state sk. The rest is history... Read about the Dual. EC.DRBG design, standardization, implementation, adoption and abandonment from its Wikipedin entry and Matt Groen's blog entry, and answer the following questions. 1. Describe briefly the controversy related to Dual EC.DRBG, by identifying various main stakeholders (organizations or companies rather than individuals), their involvement in the events, and their possibly conflicted goals. 2. Describe how one or more broad ethical concerns occur in the issue at hand, by clearly articulating what these concerns may be and how they are possible impacted by different choices or related tradeoffs. 3. Describe some of the standard professional or societal codes of ethics that relate to the events, and what can the impact to our society be, when such codes are not applied. The so-called Dual EC. DRBG pseudorandom generator (PRG) operates in the following simplified manner in order to incrementally generate blocks of pseudorandom bits r1,r2 - The PRG is initiated by randomly selecting two (2-dim) points P,Q in a given elliptic curve over a given prime field size p, so that for any integer t the points Pt,Qt are well-defined. - Starting from an initial random seed s0 in order to generate the k-th pseudorandom block rk : - the PRG's internal secret state sk is updated to the x-coordinate of point Ppk1; and - the PRG's k-th output rk is the x-coordinate of point Qsk1, appropriately truncated to a smaller bit-string. Yet, if the points P,Q are known to be related in the form of Qe=P, or if the output truncation rate is more than 1/2, then this PRG is known to be insecure-that is, a brute-force type of attack is likely to reveal the PRG's internal state sk. The rest is history... Read about the Dual. EC.DRBG design, standardization, implementation, adoption and abandonment from its Wikipedin entry and Matt Groen's blog entry, and answer the following questions. 1. Describe briefly the controversy related to Dual EC.DRBG, by identifying various main stakeholders (organizations or companies rather than individuals), their involvement in the events, and their possibly conflicted goals. 2. Describe how one or more broad ethical concerns occur in the issue at hand, by clearly articulating what these concerns may be and how they are possible impacted by different choices or related tradeoffs. 3. Describe some of the standard professional or societal codes of ethics that relate to the events, and what can the impact to our society be, when such codes are not applied
